Walker & Ling, the 134-year old, family-run department store in Weston‑super‑Mare, has brought its historic Lamson pneumatic cash tube system back to life following a remarkable restoration featured on The BBC’s Repair Shop on the Road.

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“The Cash Tubes have been a huge part of Walker & Ling’s history. Customers and staff will remember the tubes whirring all day in the shop over fifty years. It’s wonderful to have it working again,” said owner Sam Walker, the fifth generation to run the store.

 

During the Second World War, German bombers struck Weston High Street, destroying the family-run store. Over the decades that followed, Walker & Ling was rebuilt in a more Modern style, complete with high-tech finishes including Weston’s first passenger electric lift, and the cutting-edge Lamson tube system.

 

The cash tubes were designed to take cash and receipts quickly and securely up to the offices above, where the transaction was processed, then sent back with change. The system worked beautifully for over 70 years, often working for up to 9 hours a day. In 2021 the tubes were decommissioned following an ominous ‘clunking’ noise in the motor room.

In 2025, Dom and the team from the BBC’s Repair Shop partnered with Quirepace, who had acquired Lamson, to attempt a restoration. Though their current team had not worked with a machine like it, with their experience and a little imaginative engineering, they were able to install a new motor, reconnect the vacuum system, and reanimate a single wonderful tube – Tube 11 – which is now in working order. It is believed to be the only remaining working Lamson machine in the UK.

 

Walker & Ling is inviting customers, locals, and past employees to visit the store, see the revived tube in action, and share their own memories of using the system over the decades.